I got this bike from my friend Bill who had put it together 20 years before. Bill actually bought the motor out of the Little Nickel want ads from some old guy. He then mated it to a ’39 trans and a ’50 wishbone frame. I rode the ancient Panhead how Bill had fixed it up for a quite a while, then slowly started making a few minor changes like the Friscoed tank and Wassell fender over the space of about a year. One day I went to replace the rear tire with a new one and pretty much ended up rebuilding the whole bike ’til it ended up looking like it does now. I remade the springer, added some early Knuckle brakes that don’t work very well. I busted out the bender and welder, then fabbed the handlebars as well as the license plate/taillight all by my lonesome.
This last summer it was my only vehicle running, and I rode it every day including to Bonneville for the speed trials. It was the best time of my life so far, and I would never trade the time I’ve had with this bike for anything in the world.
In the end it’s just another Panhead, and I feel that I am its caretaker for the moment. As Bill says, “That Pan has had more than a few lives. I’m not sure any of us even want to know everything that bike has seen.” It has endeared itself to me, and I have lots of memories with it and hope to have a few even more epic ones before it moves on to its next caretaker one day. Old steel like this has a soul that will live on forever—unlike my blood and bones. SC